


Disengage

by sacae



Category: Yu-Gi-Oh! Zexal
Genre: Barian's Cardigan, Gen, M/M, does this count as m/m if they say the word friend ad nauseum, no actual mention of cardigans, ygoshipolympics
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-08-08
Updated: 2015-08-08
Packaged: 2018-04-13 15:04:21
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,437
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4526634
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sacae/pseuds/sacae
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>“Anyway, his wager infringes on your free will. Would you really let this kind of thing decide whether or not you could speak to a friend?” As Shingetsu spoke, Yuuma thought, his voice and eyes seemed to get a bit warmer. Maybe they really were, or maybe Yuuma was just looking for notes of Shingetsu’s clumsier, friendlier front.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>III issues a challenge to Shingetsu.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Disengage

Tuesday morning, III’s hand slammed down on Shingetsu’s desk with a resounding _bang._

“Please accept my challenge!” he requested, except with his eyes flashing and his voice steely it sounded more like a shouted demand.

“III—?!” started Yuuma, meaning to ask, like, _what are you doing here_ or _why are you challenging Shingetsu_ , or _did you lose the school uniform I gave you._

“Excuse me,” the teacher cut in, massaging one temple, “we’re in the middle of class. Are you a student? You’re not wearing the uniform.” III turned to face him, shifting expressions nigh instantaneously from looking like he might set something on fire through sheer force of will to an apologetic smile.

“No, I’ll be taking my leave now. Please excuse the interruption, sir.” He spun around again, and swept into a bow pointed _directly_ at Yuuma. “Yuuma, I’m sorry for disturbing your lessons! I’ll come talk to you again later!”

And then he was out the door again, leaving a letter on Shingetsu’s desk and a room full of stunned looks in his wake.

As soon as he left, the room exploded with loudly whispered questions. “Who was that?” “What did he want from _Shingetsu_?” “Did you see what he was wearing?” “You know him, Yuuma? Can you introduce me?”

“Don’t ask _me_ ,” Yuuma whined at them. “How should I know what he was thinking?”

While Ukyo struggled to get his students’ attentions back on their studies, Yuuma glanced over at Shingetsu, peering over his shoulder to try to get a look at the letter he was unfolding. “What’s it say?” Kotori elbowed him in the arm, probably because he wasn’t quieting down so the teacher could continue his lesson, but she was looking over, too.

“The place and time for a duel,” Shingetsu answered, eyes still scanning the lines of neat lettering, “and that if I don’t have my own saber he’ll provide one for me.”

“ _Saber?!_ ”

Kotori elbowed him again. “Shhhh!”

“And, um…” continued Shingetsu, like he was totally oblivious to both of their reactions, “Yuuma-kun, I think this might be for the sake of your virtue?”

“HAAAAHH?”

“Tsukumo, Shingetsu,” Ukyo called out. “Perhaps you could discuss this another time?”

Shingetsu tossed the letter to Yuuma, who scrambled for it with a yelp as it threatened to slip right off the table, and turned to face front with an exaggerated salute. “Yes, Ukyo-sensei! Please continue the lesson for the best!”

\---

“I don’t know what you were talking about, ‘my virtue’ or whatever, this just says he wants you to leave me alone.” Yuuma waved the paper in the air from his post on the toilet, while Shingetsu fell into his customary pose of crossing his arms and leaning against the stall door.

“His true reasoning is almost certainly that he suspects me of hiding my real nature. We have to be careful not to let anyone else around you start to foster similar doubts,” he explained, staring intently at Yuuma. “So I offered up an alternate explanation for why he would want me away from you.”

“Well—sure, but you couldn’t have thought of anything else at all?”

“More importantly, Yuuma. While I’m confident that I could defeat Mihael Arclight in a contest of swordsmanship under other circumstances, my cover will not allow it. And, obviously, I can’t afford to agree to be separated from you indefinitely.” For just a moment, a warm, almost prickling feeling clenched in Yuuma’s chest. “As my subordinate, you are a key tool in my mission to protect Earth and Barian.”

Yuuma made a face. “Yeah, yeah, I get it. So you’re going to turn him down.”

“No. That would be as good as an admission of guilt. It would only encourage him to redouble his efforts to expose me.”

“So…” Yuuma thought about this. “What are you going to do instead?”

“Not me,” corrected Shingetsu. “You’re going to accept the duel on my behalf.”

“Huh? Is that kind of thing even allowed? He even went as far as to learn how to write all these words!” Yuuma waved the paper again, more enthusiastically, and pointed at some of the well-proportioned, neatly-spaced kanji. “I don’t even know a bunch of these!”

“They’re only grade-schooler level.”

“Hey!”

“Anyway, his wager infringes on your free will. Would you really let this kind of thing decide whether or not you could speak to a friend?” As Shingetsu spoke, Yuuma thought, his voice and eyes seemed to get a bit warmer. Maybe they really were, or maybe Yuuma was just looking for notes of Shingetsu’s clumsier, friendlier front.

It didn’t really matter.

“No. Of course I wouldn’t!”

“So it makes perfect sense for you to accept the duel. We could even say you insisted on it, and I had to concede to you.”

“Oh. Huh. Hey, that’s really smart!”

“Of course you would think so.”

\---

Even though III wrote that he would bring one for Shingetsu, Yuuma brought one of his dad’s old swords, after checking with his grandmother that it qualified for a saber. He hoped he wouldn’t need it, somehow, but it was an extra bit of reassurance.

III was already waiting when he and Shingetsu arrived at the rooftop of the building named in the note. He looked surprised when the door opened—he must have expected Shingetsu to back out of it, after all—and even more surprised when he saw Yuuma’s blade.

“Yuuma! What are you doing?”

Yuuma took a breath and straightened up, jabbing his thumb at his own chest with confidence he hoped would stop needing forcing before the actual fighting started. Pretty much his only advantage over III in swordplay depended on how bad III felt at the moment about the thought of beating him into the ground. “I’m accepting your challenge! Shingetsu is my friend—I don’t want to lose him over some duel, so I took over for him! I mean, what’s your problem with Shingetsu, anyway?”

III looked almost shell-shocked, just standing there staring at Yuuma, with a sword dangling limply from one hand. Right as Yuuma was about ready to keep talking, he suddenly smiled, shook his head, and tossed his saber down. It clattered to a stop almost halfway between his feet and Yuuma’s own.

“I lose,” III announced.

“Uh.” Even though Yuuma had been hoping for this, it took him a moment to process that it actually _happened_ —and then, once he had, he let out a whoop and rounded on Shingetsu to loop an arm around his neck. “You see? It all worked out! We should celebrate with duel meshi! Hey, Shingetsu, I’ll race you back to my house—”

“Yuuma,” said III.

“Huh?” Yuuma turned to look at III, but III fell silent, looking pointedly at Shingetsu.

“I think I’ll go on ahead,” Shingetsu offered, cottoning on. “We can race next time!”

“Oh, sure,” Yuuma agreed, before it could occur to him how poorly running races with Shingetsu always went. Shingetsu had already set off by the time it was halfway out of his mouth, and then it was just him and III left on the roof.

“I’m sorry I didn’t try to talk about this with you properly first,” III said. “I just didn’t want you to be upset over the loss of a friend, but now I see I went about it in completely the wrong way.”

“It’s okay,” Yuuma reassured him, setting a hand on his shoulder. “Just, you know, don’t try to pull that kind of thing again!”

“I won’t,” he agreed. “But Yuuma, I don’t trust him. I understand that he’s an important friend to you, but I think he’s lying to you.”

“What makes you say that?” Yuuma asked, trying not to look too uneasy about it and failing utterly with a nervous laugh. He could tell from the look on III’s face that he knew something was off, but he didn’t ask, instead continuing as if Yuuma didn’t look like he was suffering from digestion issues.

“It’s just a feeling,” he admitted, frowning, though somehow the way he said it made Yuuma think there might be something else to it. “If he was lying to you, Yuuma—if he was only pretending to be your friend, what would you do?”

“Huh?” Momentarily taken aback, Yuuma scratched his cheek, considering the question. But… Shingetsu was lying, but not to _him_. In fact, he was the only one Shingetsu had trusted with the _truth_. Of course they were real friends.

He shook his head. “Nah, there’s no way. You don’t have to trust him or anything, III, but _I_ trust him.”


End file.
